the senior geologist nameless patrol which and they discovered gold here at first the police banned us from panning but we went to the local authorities and asked for their permission and saying we had no work so we wanted to at least gather some gold. that there were a large nuggets in the river then but now there is little gold left to get someone should go high in the mountains. we started eight or ten am and finish at four or five pm. on some days the time passes by extremely quickly as you are panning gold all day long without stop.

usually two people work together in black pants gold with his elder brother first they have to find just the right place. and you should look for places like this one over the water brings gold from the mountain top of the gold is heavy so it gets stuck at river bandits that's where we search for it. this is what we call timid and ironstone it is heavier than a usual stone as it contains a lot of metal if there are a lot of them it means there is also gold here. once the right spot is found the gold panels get down to business the technique is basic one person stands in the water and shovel sand from the riverbed then they sift it on an ordinary come at every particle of gold gets stuck in the indentations.

stairs intently hoping to see tiny flakes of the precious metal in the sand. a little bit further up the river behind pink world we once had and fourteen grams in just a couple of hours. but that was long ago it was a great joy but we still panning then and went home to celebrate. every morning i ask for help so that he gives me gold and i know that he will give it to me. always helps me. i find gold every day sometimes more sometimes less. one night i had a dream that i came across a nugget weighing ten kilograms and i was giving this gold away to other people in my dream and the next morning after that dream i panned

a lot of gold. in. the water in the golden river is incredibly cold pending can take up to six hours a day. and his brothers have to work neat high in water they often get painful cramps in their legs and have to rest on the riverbank. searching for gold isn't a bad thing the clean river gives us pure. sends it to us it's much better to be working here standing in clean water and searching for gold and being a guest worker in russia. to live because weld is now limited to his parents yard just like elton back he's a father of two fields who used to pound rivers for gold. two years ago to their bikes leg was amputated spending so much time in the icy mountain waters gave him a chuma by the time he saw a doctor it was too late. i get

a social security check every three months it's rare that a social worker visits they don't seem to be interested in how i live. but sometimes they bring me a few small presents for the holidays. according to official data there are two dozen gold panels registered in the child coal region but in reality there are many more local authorities are aware of illegal prospecting but choose to turn a blind eye rather than ruining livelihoods by demanding they obtain a license. basically they have to get a license and pay taxes but living conditions in the region on good and many people are very poor. so we don't always make them do it. in winter they spend

all day standing in the water even when it's up to minus forty degrees but they don't do that because they have good lives. here in kurdistan is very and klondyke people can say that the gold they gather is for personal use for example to make dentures from the precious metal a golden smile here is a symbol of prosperity and is considered the equivalent of a healthy bank deposit. well i don't feel any reverence for gold i mean they bring it to me and i make tea for them i take money for what i do it's just immaterial to me many choose golden teeth to make them more beautiful basically having gold in your mouth is very healthy it helps digestion.

you know you. with the head of the gold palace family he first met. twenty grams then. much more modest when the youngest son. of the best painter in the family had been lost when they started a gram of gold could be sold for a thousand. that's around twenty dollars now the price. has a different figure in mind. right.

every day is different but on average we get about a gram and a half a day last time i sold some gold for about three hundred dollars it's good if we have enough money to buy the necessities like flour tea sugar and salt is not that expensive doesn't make you rich it's the end of the haymaking season now so soon everyone will be at the river painting winter is coming. only in the winter it's dangerous to do it in the summer. when soil is frozen it gets stronger the soil we dig out is taken to the river where it is broken down by the water this new sand is then pound for. unfortunately while digging there is always the threat of being killed in

a. brother kill used to work in these makeshift mines dug into the rocky banks of the river. my brother a kill used to work in this mine he was a good man but it's upsetting to talk about him. the reason i prefer not to talk about to kill suicide is that they suspect they know what drove him to it. suicide is about the only way to escape from the poverty and medieval lifestyle on the banks of the golden river. a grim and symbolic reflection of the region. please speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic in school here on. reporting from the world's hot spots fifty yard p.

interviews intriguing stories for you. then try. to find out more visit our big. wealthy british style. markets finance scandal find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to name two kinds of

reports on our. i.

well i mean for the. science technology innovation and all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered.

only leaves his farm state a couple of times a year today is one of those exciting moments the head of the lunch family is going to the market place in the administrative center of the region he wants to stock up for the winter and buy a lamb for a festive occasion selling the gold brings him the money he needs. your brother is everything ok. it's been too long. yeah. good to see you once knew.

as everywhere in central asia the kennedys marketplace on a sunday is like a forum people come here to talk about the latest news and to share gossip. i came to buy a lemon paid one hundred dollars for it i also bought some groceries well. what the elders had to say it appears all is quiet around here and everybody is talking about the winter most likely it will be bitter cold january temperatures sometimes drop to thirty six thirty seven degrees below zero. elmer's is a man who buys up gold he's been in the business for almost ten years although strictly speaking it's not entirely legal but elmer's no longer worries about his

safety he's already made friends with some local policemen and competitors on his way back he makes a point of paying a courtesy visit to one of them the region's unofficial bus goes by the name of. can you tell me the way to ask us house. turn right. thank you. just in time as preparing for a great festive occasion his youngest son is about to go through the ritual of circumcision the wealthiest men in the gold valley invites guests to his house where conversation inevitably drifts towards the ground occasion and of course gold . they've been digging up gold here for centuries don't believe those who says it's only been mined for the past fifteen years the technique has been passed

down to us from our forefathers but then foreign companies brought their intel still methods in which are damaging the environment my son might end up asking me why we did nothing to prevent this it's what worries me. most of the foreign companies here are chinese and canadian they have actually been mining gold for several years every now and then almost bumps into temporary townships for minus as he continues on his journey heavy machine grinds tons of sand on the river banks and business methods irritate local people. some fifteen years ago i don't remember exactly but foreign firms came here mostly chinese and indian. there are also many

russian prospecting companies to. the chinese bring their own workers with them. sometimes the locals just wouldn't let the chinese workers do their jobs. but troubled times but neither side resorted to fighting fortunately. it was never big news and it all petered out eventually. but. we're not in canada or america here we're in asia you know. when elmo's was on his way to widespread unrest flared up in the carriages capital disturbances began following a rally in support of a proposal to nationalize the continent goldfield the canadian firm that develops and pays more in taxes than any other taxpayer in the country.

hundreds. and.

his guys. this. makeshift. not even jewelers can refine gold let alone others only one or two jewelers and one hundred know how to do it this is fine you need sink to be able to separate gold from other elements like silver and. this is how i do it i'm not gold in

a crucible and then add zinc to it one and a half grams of zinc for each gram of gold. as soon as it's melted down i put the mixture in a flask containing acid or gold then forms in chloroform. refining with zinc is the most hazardous method to gas released is extremely poisonous and for that reason the process is usually done in the open air the acid takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to remove all the impurities picower of the liquid gradually turns turquoise and a brown sediment is clearly visible at the bottom of the flask there it is coral gold it will turn yellow after i melt it down. the flames work a chemical miracle with brown flakes gradually forming into a small golden nugget. nater nine years ago i would refine three

hundred grams of gold by dividing it into pieces and melting each of them with gold is only a material i am a jeweler and a dental technician. i believe gold means different things to different people i do know that my wife is fond of it yet i make ornaments for her myself. turned out well. the rime deck of smoke the end of the season by throwing a modest party for themselves. they've made enough to pay for the winter for their youngest son elton back is almost ready and to top it all off they've sold the gold this means they can afford meat.

for . money is the problem if you've got to know if you'll be ok that's why we pan for gold sun cars are expensive today you can sell a call for sixty years seventy thousand last year the prices have gone up there was already a lot of snow here in november god knows what happens this year this summer was warm so that means cool winter like it was last year when there was three or four metres of snow luckily we were ready for it. didn't show up and he fell out with his father drank a lot of vodka and went off into the mountains is worried. he's been away for two hours this is brother looking for him i pray to god he

doesn't hang himself to. in mind gold wearing and selling it is the exclusive domain of women. gold market places the busiest spot in town. a brisk trade is found here every morning local jewelers can fix a broken ornament and why it and if asked they'll also check the quality and standard of gold. is an uzbek he says he's just an ordinary jeweler but his modest appearance and simple looking place are misleading . is among the most important people in the marketplace he plays a large part in turning the gold extract in from faraway mountains into rings and earrings. there are many homemade things around including those from other

countries some of them conform to standards others don't. know are checks the jewelry that people bring to him he determines the quality of the metal using several simple procedures. or do you want me to check it. if the gold is good and the acid it won't turn it black and if it's homemade well made by hand it might turn black go up is turning black now as you can see this one was made by hand but it wasn't done well. but this one is good. it's fourteen karat gold. people trust each other and you always need to check no matter whether you are from someone you know i will not the number of customers can vary from twenty thirty sometimes fifty.

obviously the marketplace is only the tip of the iceberg large scale trading in gold and poultry grams in a market is hidden from public eyes. many know where the gold streaming from. it's headed to neighboring uzbekistan and then on to iran and the arab emirates it's possible that some of those shipments may well have a few of the ground. brothers pound from their river of gold. the youngest of the brothers came back from the mountains after going missing the day before he's still drunk without entering his father's house helton back gets down to the job he knows best panning for gold. i think i'm lucky to be a kurd is. that's good to know that i was born in the chat color region.

i live like any other kurd as i don't need anything apart from what i already have . the mentally ill i don't want my children to do the same job standing in cold water and ruining their health but i'll go on doing it to earn enough money so that in the future my children don't go through the same hardships that i.

culture is that so much about the taxpayers' money matters it's nice to be a lot of people at area china has successfully completion did sell through another leadership change the last decade has witnessed this country transformed a tremendous speed. would be soo much brighter than if you moved some money from funds to freshen some . of these firms starts on t.v. dot com.

wealthy british style. spent on guys.

markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy. there are no. global financial headlines kaiser report. notes we have. all. only effective social changes. to ask. ask.

people in the field. how much they care about the women of afghanistan it's not true they don't care about the women of afghanistan. good luck or touring. to build a new. found anything mission to teach music. which is why you should care only.